Rehearsal Day 27, July 25th

Here I sit in my room, waiting to go to rehearsal and for our first day of previews. I must admit, technical rehearsal process was long. The cues we built in for the lights were incredibly detailed and specific, but the effect is nothing short of perfection. The costumes, the lights, the set have given rise to this world of Venice, Italy and we the actors get to play in it.

With the process of doing a new musical, I have learned how to be ready and prepared to change. Something is always changing. To be honest, our first real run-through was last night and that in itself had holds, so we have yet to ever run through this show without stopping. Our first time will be tonight with a house full of audience members. It is exhilarating: live theatre. What will happen on stage tonight will be discoveries that have yet to be explored. The audience will see choices being made, tested, and how they respond will influence how we progress the show. It is truly an interactive experience for our preview audiences. And I could not be more excited.

As we moved into the technical rehearsals, our team grew this week to about another 25 members, including our crew. The orchestra moved in and has filled the space with musical instruments, giving the show a whole new sound, the wigs and costumes have literally forced us to move a different way, see ourselves as our characters, and the set is a literal adult (or perhaps not so adult!) jungle gym, letting us play our way through the story. And we are still rehearsing, changing things this afternoon to try out tonight. Based on the audience this evening, there may be more changes in rehearsal tomorrow that will be incorporated into our second performance on Saturday evening. And this will continue until August 1st when our show stops changing for the time being and the choices we have made with our characters will be played through the remainder of the run.

It has been give weeks in the making and here we are now, finally ready to tell our story to audiences. Who knows what lies ahead...but we know what lay behind us and that was something so fulfilling and wonderful that anything that is to come can only be more to experience, learn from, grow from and enjoy. - Jason Heymann